Q&A: Preparing for a Broadway comeback

Michael Wells, Improvement Association head

By KERY MURAKAMI, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, April 25, 2006

In June, the City Council increased building height limits on Broadway, hoping to encourage new development and resurrect the tired street. This week, the Seattle P-I spoke with Michael Wells, Broadway Improvement Association chairman and owner of Bailey-Coy Books.

Have you seen any signs of improvement since the height limits were raised?

"The first major development is where the Safeway used to be (on Broadway East and East Republican Street). What I've heard from them is that there's a lot of interest in the 8,000 square feet of retail space. They want to keep the cards close on who they are. They said there's really strong response to the condo units. The average buyer has an income of $90,000 a year. ... We always anticipated that everything wouldn't happen at once, but key properties would be developed first. I think the owners of the old QFC (which sits vacant across Broadway from the vacant Safeway) property might be waiting to see what's going to happen."

Haven't a lot of people in the neighborhood complained that the stores on Broadway don't sell the kind of merchandise they want?

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"We've had meetings with the CHIP (Capitol Hill Improvement District made up of property owners) and the city's Office of Economic Development to come up with a long-term plan. We're defining specific characteristics of what we want up here. Ideally, the mix would be two or three appropriate national stores, like the Gap that used to be up here. But mostly we want independent Capitol Hill- and Broadway-appropriate businesses. When it comes down to it, though, these decisions (about what stores will lease space) depend on the property owners. So we're working on getting in touch with everybody and getting everybody on the same page. There's lots of players. Some of them are absentee owners. You look at neighborhoods like Fremont, and there are a handful of major players who own a lot of property. On Broadway there's like millions of little landlords."

You were sort of discouraged about Broadway last year. How do you feel now?

"There's real progress and change. In the next three or four years, Broadway is going to be jumping again."

What's going to happen with the $500,000 the city appropriated last year to improve Broadway?

"A Broadway revitalization organization (made up of business and property owners, residents and Seattle Central Community College) has been meeting since February to come up with a comprehensive plan on how the money can be best utilized. The main themes we've been hearing over and over are security and cleanliness, safety and cleanliness and also having a retail mix. We're going to have a list to present the mayor in June."